President Clinton and his entourage of top-notch advisers may not have figured out a way to handle the Monica Lewinsky controversy, but ABC News anchorman Sam Donaldson has.

"When they catch you, confess," said Donaldson, the host of Service Electric's 50th anniversary gala Friday night. "Throw yourself at the mercy of the court and by all means, invite them to a Friday night dinner."

FOR THE RECORD - (Published Friday, June 26, 1998) Anna Macus' name was misspelled in a story about a cable TV gala in some editions on June 20.

Mixing politics with humor, the award-winning journalist entertained the 700 guests at the Holiday Inn in Fogelsville with anecdotes from his years of covering the White House. Donaldson, a 30-year ABC News veteran, recently returned to the chief White House correspondent post after a nine-year hiatus.

But he said nothing much has changed.

Mimicking former President Reagan's voice, Donaldson recalled an occasion where the Gipper misidentified a foreign dignitary as the late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong.

When Donaldson returned to the White House beat this year, he said both Clinton and Vice President Al Gore misidentified their candidate for U.S. Surgeon General at a news conference.

Clinton introduced him as David Hatcher.

Gore introduced him as David Thatcher.

The surgeon general's name is David Satcher.

"Nothing has changed there," he said.

Donaldson joked that Clinton would have liked to attend Friday night's gala, but Service Electric did not invite him.

"This is a pretty big crowd," Donaldson said. "He would have raised half a million."

The festive crowd sipped champagne and danced the night away in celebration of the cable company's 50th anniversary gala. Family members of John Walson Sr., the founder of Service Electric, remembered the entrepreneur as someone who was willing to take risks even though people scoffed at his cable television idea. Walson founded the company in 1948 in Mahanoy City after stringing some cable wires from his antenna. Prior to this discovery, Lehigh Valley residents were unable to receive Philadelphia stations because mountains obstructed reception.

Walson's discovery bore the first cable system in the country.

"John was a visionary who had the confidence to take risks," said his sister, Anna Mathis. "His ultimate goal was to develop technology to provide the best pictures possible."

CNN's Larry King was scheduled to attend the festivities, but canceled at the last minute.

Donaldson said if Clinton had confessed in the first place, then the "vicious jackals of the press and Ken Starr -- that vicious man -- would not be so enraged.